EU Cross-border Cooperation Programmes

Although there was no systematic financial support of the Czech-Polish border area development and of the cross-border cooperation funded by the EU in 1998, ten years later there are programmes of cross-border cooperation that play an important role in the activities of the Euroregion Silesia.

The EU programmes aiming the cross-border cooperation have been a systematic tool intended to secure a well-balanced and sustainable development in the border areas. Such support started in 1990 as an independent initiative called INTERREG set for the EU member countries. The initiative was followed by another initiative called INTERREG II in 1994. This one was extended by support of cross-border areas adjacent to non member countries of the EU. In these countries different financing instruments were applied under a programme called Phare CBC (Cross-Border Cooperation).

The Phare CBC Czech Republic - Poland programme began in 1999. It was terminated in 2003 and since 2004, when both the countries became the EU members, it has been possible for the countries to participate in an initiative called INTERREG III.

Unlike the two previous initiatives, the initiative INTERREG III was within the financial period 2000 - 2006 divided into three basic strands well-known at present:

strand A - cross-border cooperation

strand B - transnational cooperation

strand C - interregional cooperation

Amount of 34.5 million EUR from the ERDF (European Regional Development Fund) has been earmarked for the programme "INTERREG IIIA the Czech Republic - Poland".

When speaking about the enlargement of the EU in 2004 - 2007, one of three basic objectives of European policy of cohesion in the period of 2007 - 2013 was that of European Territorial Cooperation. Similar to the previous initiative INTERREG III this one has focused three strands: cross-border, transnational and interregional cooperation; the third one is the most important priority.

Amount of 219.4 million EUR from the ERDF is intended for the Czech-Polish cooperation via "Operational Programme of Cross-border Cooperation the Czech Republic - the Republic of Poland 2007 - 2013".